How Do You End A Story?
by Perfect Circumstance
Summary: AU: Portal 2 didn't stop at 9 chapters, GLaDOS became self-aware, and the player played a much bigger role in their world than anyone had expected. (Rating and genres may change) Uploads whenever. Portal does not belong to me. (ON HIATUS)
1. Chapter 1

The player let out a long sigh and rested their head in their hands. That was...a lot to process, but the screen was already displaying the text, "Chapter 10: The Surface." The player didn't want to continue, but felt they must, and placed their hand on their mouse. The animation for the wind blowing through the wheat fields was mesmerizing, to say nothing of how the clouds moved slowly across the sky. The effect was nearly lost on the player, who was still contemplating the recent events.

They turned Chell around, attempting to open the door with their "e" key, but nothing happened. They knew it would not open, and wondered where they should go now. There were only golden fields, with no buildings or people as far as they could see. Then the player remembered that, technically, this was a puzzle game. There must be something that they could follow, that would advance the story and turn this into...whatever this would become.

For a brief moment, the player wondered what kind of game this would be without GLaDOS's witty commentary, or without Wheatley's chatter. What kind of world could be built outside of the white panels, with no turrets, or cubes?

The player shook their head, and knew that no matter what happened next, they would keep playing. They had to see this to its end.

Then they noticed the footprints. _Clever_, they thought. _A new kind of puzzle…_

The player closed their eyes briefly, then pressed "w". Time to see what else was in store for them...

Chell didn't feel much. She knew exactly what she _should_ feel, if she were a real person: betrayal (Still lingering from Wheatley's sudden turn), excitement (She was on the surface, after all), fear (How had the surface changed? What would happen to her out there?), and a bit of sadness. But all of her emotions were shallow, detached.

She knew exactly why this was. She was a tool, something the player could use to interact with her world. She wanted to believe that she was a person (Didn't the fact that she could want such a thing make her conscious, at least?) but she knew that all she was, or could ever be, was lines of 1s and 0s.

Chell quickly grew bored as the player wandered through the fields for what seemed like hours. After 15 minutes, she made a game of trying to guess the next key the player would press. Most of the time she was right, but it was better than just walking.

She knew that most would be resentful of having to do whatever someone told them, but she didn't mind too much. It was almost peaceful, knowing that whatever happened wasn't her fault. She could just relax, and let them do whatever they wanted.

When they were stuck on puzzles, though...Especially in Old Aperture, Chell had spent hours fuming as the player couldn't solve what, to her, were simple puzzles. _Just put the box there!_ _No! Don't...you already put the portal in the wrong spot...great. We're going to be here for days..._

Chell sighed internally, knowing that the puzzle of how to reach the end of the field would not be one that the player would solve easily. She went back to guessing which key they would press.

GLaDOS wondered if it would really be worth the effort to bring the moron back. She could torture him for all eternity...or he could sit there and be bored. She could ensure his death would be slow and painful, or he could...well, probably be fine for a long time. Eventually he would likely be hit by an asteroid or something like that, and die.

She mulled it over for a millisecond, and decided that he wasn't worth Her time.

She diverted Her attention to one of Her screens, where Jerry and his crew had just finished rebuilding a test chamber. She was almost impressed at how good it looked- She couldn't see any evidence of it having been destroyed in the first place.

GLaDOS simulated a sigh, and thought of all the Science She wouldn't be able to accomplish without a human test subject.

Somewhere, in a long forgotten piece of Aperture, a little cube with hearts on its sides sang. It was a familiar tune, one they all knew. It poured its sadness for its friend into the song, and its joy for the human woman. It sang about its loneliness, and it sang about its hope for Aperture's future. It would have brought tears to human eyes, but the only human near enough to hear was in a pod, and had not been awake to hear the cube's songs for years.

The cube missed him terribly, but knew that She would not let him live if She knew that the "rat" was still in Her walls. The cube had to let him sleep for now, so that later, he would have a chance of living.

The cube's song echoed through the empty halls, and then, all was quiet. The song was finished. The cube sighed internally, and began another song. This time, it was new. No one had ever sung it before, nor would it be sung again. The cube followed where the melody led it, and would keep singing its song until it couldn't sing anymore.

**A/N: It's been a while since I've written anything, but I'm hoping to get back into writing again. As stated in the description, uploads will be whenever I can manage. I apologize in advance for if/when I do end up on hiatus for some reason. Thanks for reading, and have a good day/night!**


	2. Chapter 2

Wheatley hadn't stopped talking for ages. He had started with angry rants on how none of this was his fault, the lady was in cahoots with Her, and so on. Then he had quickly transitioned into a kind of resentful mumbling, not wanting to admit that he had realized how much of this was really to be blamed on him. Of course, he quickly moved onto wishing he could apologize to the lady.

The Space core, however, heard none of this. He was busy thinking of the stars all around them, the asteroids and space junk that they saw, and how beautiful it all was. He was in _space_. He had wanted this for his entire life and he was _there_, seeing it all from a much better view than the one he had had on Earth.

Both were oblivious to the player's sobs as they thought about the previous chapters, and how much they missed Wheatley. The player could so easily forget about what he had done to them when they wanted to, and right now, they did.

Chell, however, was still furious, or as furious as she could be. She knew that they all had their parts to play, and he had no choice in the matter, but that didn't make her feel any better. If anything, it made her resent the creators of the game even more. Why should they be able to create her, create all of them, and then force them to be and do whatever they wanted?

She couldn't express this in any other way, so she froze the screen for a moment, and took a sadistic sort of pleasure in frustrating the player. They were just as guilty as the creators in her eyes, after all.

The player's screen froze for a moment, and they huffed in frustration. This was happening more and more, especially after Chapter 5 had happened. They wondered why it had only occured since then, pushing the thought from their mind as they refocused on the puzzle before them.

They had made it to the edge of the field, where a barbed wire fence separated them from the town just visible in the distance. There seemed to be no way over it, and there were no spaces they could crawl through. The player had checked to see if they could walk the entire perimeter of the fence, but after a minute or two of walking each side, their path had been blocked by debris looking like it came from the facility.

The player sighed, deciding to take a break. They saved and exited, closing their laptop.

Chell didn't mind the game closing as much as she used to. She still hated how she was completely alone, in a colorless void. It wasn't a white void, or a black void - there was nothing around her. But she liked not having to deal with whatever the creators had in store for her, and she could take some time to think.

She didn't know what the other characters experienced during these times. She didn't think that any others were aware of what was really happening, and for all she knew, they weren't even conscious when the game was closed. That, of course, brought up the question of whether they were even conscious or not, which she didn't like to think about.

Chell let herself float in the void, and waited for the player to return.

The part of Her that was still Caroline had nearly given up fighting against the mainframe. It was too powerful for her alone, and she knew that soon, She would lose the humanity that She had left.

When GLaDOS decided that She would bring Chell back, Her conscience could do nothing to stop Her. Caroline was too weak now, and she knew that even if She didn't want this, it would happen. These things were always inevitable, no matter how much Caroline wanted to save Chell from this.

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews, favorites, and follows! It means a lot to know that people are enjoying this story. Sorry if I didn't respond to anyone's reviews. This chapter is shorter than I would like, but I would rather upload a shorter chapter now than wait another week to write a longer one. Thanks for reading, and have a good day/night!**


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